Between Reality and Dreams
by Soultra
Summary: You think it's hard to wake a sleep walker? What about a sleep teleporter? Kurt's having strange dreams, but that's only part of the problem. What's really going on? This is my first attempt at an X-Men Evo story, so please review! Chapter 3 is here!
1. In The Darkness of the Night

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Chapter 1: In the Darkness of Night

In the ebony, night skies above the mansion, a storm was brewing. Thick, dark clouds were spreading, choking out the stars, as thunder began to rumble ominously. Lightning danced among the clouds as an icy wind whipped through the trees. It was an unexpected event - one that even the greatest of meteorologists had missed, but it seemed determined that no one would be able to ignore its presence now that it had arrived.

Kurt Wagner had been sleeping soundly, but his eyes flew open as the thunder boomed loudly. He turned over towards the window, still mostly asleep as he snuggled deeper into the blankets. It felt like the temperature had dropped 20 degrees since he had went to bed. Yawning, he glanced at the clock on the stand near his bed and saw it was 3:41 a.m. 

Lightning flashed, briefly flooding the room in a brilliant glow. Kurt sat up in bed, for in the moment of light he thought he had seen something in the window. It had almost looked like a shadow of someone standing there, but that was impossible. His bedroom was on the second floor. It had to be a shadow or, more than likely, just his imagination. 

The lightning repeated its performance and again he could see what appeared to be a shadow. It looked even more like the outline of an individual than it had the first time.

He stood up and watched the window for a moment before teleporting beside it. Leaning over quietly, he pulled the curtains back and stared out in the night. At first he saw nothing.

The lightning suddenly slashed through the night and Kurt almost screamed when he saw the image of…

Kurt's eyes opened, his breath coming in ragged gasps. It was a dream, he thought to himself, only a dream. That explained why he couldn't even remember what it was he had seen. He almost laughed at his fright until he noticed where he was. Instead of being in his nice warm bed, he was standing by that very window and the curtain was still in his hand. Taking a deep breath, he looked outside, somewhat expecting to see the thing that had scared him so very badly.

There was nothing outside. The lightning lit up the world, but all he could see was the empty yard. The rain had finally began to fall and it beat the ground almost in fury. He watched for a minute, sighing softly in relief, before returning to bed.

"It vas a dream," he said softly to himself. Yes, that explained it. He curled up beneath the blankets and had started to relax somewhat as he glanced at the clock.

It was 3:43 a.m.

He frowned slightly. It was only 2 minutes later than the time he had first seen in the dream, and that was probably about how long he stood at the window. How strange, he thought but still a dream was the only thing that made since.

The storm continued to rage overhead as Kurt turned over in bed, his back towards the window. "It _had _to be a dream," he said aloud, "didn't it?"

The steady downpour of rain provided him with no answers.

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So there's chapter one. I would appreciate any feedback but please remember that this is my first attempt at an X-Men evolution story, so please be kind. Be forewarned that Chapter 2, which should be up soon, is somewhat odd but that was what I was going for with this story. Oh, and I'm an also working on those few unfinished stories I have posted here so hopefully I'll have those done soon as well. Bye all and thanks for reading!


	2. The Border Begins To Blur

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Chapter 2: The Border Begins To Blur

The day awoke bright and warm, as if in complete denial of the fierceness of the night's storm. Only the soggy, beaten grass and a few broken branches were left behind to tell the story. Still, with the birds chirping happily and the gentle, fragrant breeze it was almost hard to imagine the world being anything but peaceful.

Breakfast was on the table, but Kurt was merely pushing the food around his plate with a fork rather than eating. He hadn't slept well after the strange dream. Every time he would close his eyes the same brief image of the thing in the window was flash in his mind, yet just as it had been the first time - he never could quite remember what it was he had seen. All he knew was that it seemed familiar somehow.

"You sure are quiet this morning, Kurt," Jean said.

Kurt looked up from his plate. Jean was smiling, but he could see the concern in her eyes, and the others had turned to look at him as well. It made him nervous, but he gave his best impression of a warm smile and laughed slightly. "I guess I'm a little tired," he announced, as if revealing a great secret.

"Didn't you sleep well?" she asked.

"No," he admitted, "the storm voke me." It wasn't _exactly_ a lie, he tried to convince himself.

"You too?" Kitty inquired, "I didn't even think it like was supposed to rain last night."

"It wasn't in the forecast," Scott clarified.

As the others began to talk about the weather, Kurt that the others would forget about him for awhile. However, he noticed Jean glancing quickly at the Professor who nodded slightly. He was fairly sure that nod was about him somehow.

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Being half-asleep only made Kurt's day at school seem longer. Yet, it did give him time to reflect on the situation. To his knowledge, he had only teleported in his sleep one other night. It was right after he had first learned he could teleport. He had gotten sick and was running a fairly high fever. That night, while struggling with fever-induced dreams, he had awoke three times to find himself somewhere else in the house. Yet, after his fever broke, it stopped happening. Later, he had even found is sort of amusing and referred to it as sleep 'porting.

So, maybe he had been running a slight fever or something last night. He had only done it one time and he hadn't gone any farther than the window of his own room. All and all, he was probably making too much of it. Still, he knew what was bothering wasn't the sleep 'porting but rather the dream itself.

At least his late night trouble didn't seem to be affecting his grades. Every paper and test he seemed to have gotten back today was an A. He was usually a good student, but it seemed like he was doing exceptionally well lately.

As he got back a geometry test with a red 97 at the top, he was inwardly overjoyed. He hadn't done so well on one of the earlier tests, but he had been steadily making up for it. He looked up at the teacher with a large smile.

"Have I raised my grade up to an A, yet?" he asked, "Or do I still have a B?"

She seemed surprised. "An A? You did well on the test and I'm happy for you, but you still have a lot of catching up to do, especially since you were absent all those days."

"Vhat?!?" he cried, "But I've been here every day!"

"You were absent for two weeks," she contradicted, "I thought you might have transferred until you showed up yesterday to take the test. I even asked your friends about you and they didn't even know."

"But, but," he stuttered helplessly. He couldn't have been absent. He remembered coming to class every day. What was going on here?

"You don't look well," the teacher said, "Are you feeling okay?"

"I have to get out of here," he mumbled as he stood up and headed for the door.

"Wait! You don't have a pass!" she cried after him, but he didn't pause.

There was no one in the hallway, so he teleported to the bathrooms. He shoved the door open and stepped inside and found he was completely alone. He walked over to one of the sinks and stood for a moment staring at his reflection in the mirror. Nothing made sense anymore. He felt like he was losing his mind. Looking away from his reflection, he turned on the cold water and stuck his hands in the icy flow.

Kurt awoke to find himself standing in the bathroom just down the hall from his own bedroom, his hands still in the cold running water. Quickly turning off the water, he dried his hands on a nearby towel as he tried to figure out what had happened. He must have been sleep 'porting again, but that dream was so real. Hadn't he really gotten a 97 on his geometry test today? He thought so, but he was no longer sure. What if he had dreamed the entire day?

A soft noise in the hallway caught his attention, and distracted him from his current problem. Was this real or was this all just part of another dream?

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And so ends chapter 2. I told this part was weird, but things will start making sense soon. Trust me. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed my story so far. I really appreciate it!


	3. No Way To Hide

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Chapter 3: No Way to Hide

Kurt stood in the bathroom for a few minutes, staring at the closed door. Had he really heard something? He wasn't sure, but the truth was that he wasn't sure of much of anything just now. He wasn't even positive if any of this was real or a dream.

However, he wasn't going to find out anything but just hanging out in the bathroom all night. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the door and peered out into the darkened hallway. He half-expected to see some nightmarish monster standing there. Instead, he saw Kitty.

At first, he was too surprised to speak. Somehow the fact that it was only her and not another nightmare was more shocking. She seemed distracted as she quietly walked towards him and the stairs, but then she noticed him standing there.

"Kurt," she said, "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh," he began, "I had to go to the bathroom. Uh, vhat about you?"

"I couldn't sleep," she replied, "I have this huge paper due next week and I totally forgot about until today. I don't know how I'm going to get it finished."

He shook his head. "That's not like you," he said, only half-serious, "Maybe I'm a bad influence on you."

"Maybe," she agreed, smiling slightly, "There's just been so much stuff going on lately, it's easy to forget, you know? Now, I'm so freaked out about it, I can't seem to sleep. I thought I'd go to the kitchen and maybe get a snack or something."

"Now that really is NOT like you," he said, walking over to her, "Not that I disapprove or anything."

"Want to join me?" she asked.

"How can I turn down an offer like that," he responded.

Together, they went to the kitchen, which was eerily quiet during these early morning hours. The digital clock on the microwave announced that it was 1:43 a.m. as they entered. Kitty, even health conscious when it came to midnight snacks, chose a Red Delicious apple to eat while Kurt grabbed a slice of cold, left-over pizza from the fridge. They sat at the table while Kitty talked about her upcoming paper. Kurt only listened partly. While it was relaxing to be doing something normal and something he was sure (at least fairly) wasn't a dream, he couldn't help but be distracted by his current problems. "Kitty," he said, as she took a large bit of her apple, "Have you ever had a problem with sleepvalking?"

"Sleepwalking?" she repeated, as she swallowed, "I don't think so. I have an uncle who's a sleepwalker though."

"Really?" Kurt became interested.

"Yeah, I remember once that he came over to visit when I was like seven or eight. My parents actually put padlocks on the doors so that he wouldn't walk outside, although he insisted he had never done that. Still, one night we woke up to find him making grilled cheese in the kitchen. It was funny but kinda scary too. I mean, what if he burned the house down while he was cooking in his sleep?"

"Vas he ever able to stop?" Kurt asked.

Kitty thought for a moment. "I'm not sure," she admitted, "It seems like something happened right after that, but I can't remember what it was right now. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," he answered quickly.

Kitty looked at him quizzically for a moment, but didn't press the subject any further. She finished her apple and he finished the pizza and some cold spaghetti he had found. "I feel almost like I am sleepwalking," she said, as she yawned.

"It's a good think you don't sleepvalk," he stated, "It's not like a locked door could stop you."

"Yeah," she agreed, "I guess it is good I don't sleepwalk or you either for that matter. Who knows where you might end up." She laughed slightly as she made her way back to her room.

The darkness concealed Kurt's forlorn expression as he watched Kitty before returning to his own room. She didn't know what was going on, but her last comment was far closer to the truth then had dared to admit before now. He sat down heavily on the bed as he tried to sort his thoughts.

Something slid past his foot and Kurt jumped up suddenly. He turned on a nearby lamp, and stared down at the floor for what had moved. Whatever it was, was now under his bed. He stepped back and leaned down in order to look under the bed.

All at once, the snake sprung from it's hiding spot; it's fangs exposed and ready. Letting out a shrill cry, Kurt was barely able to avoid the reptile's attack as he teleported to the lightening fixture that hung from his ceiling. If there was one thing he hated, it was snakes. He watched as the snake circle below him, trying to find some way to strike again.

"What's going on in here?" a deep voice demanded from the doorway.

Kurt looked over and saw Wolverine standing in the doorway. He had turned on the light and seemed poised and ready for action. Confused, Kurt looked down at the floor and saw that there was no snake below him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I guess I was dreaming."

Wolverine looked at him squarely. "It must have been some dream," he growled, "to have you hanging from the ceiling and what did you do to the window?"

Kurt turned and saw the right curtain sway slightly in the breeze, but the window itself was closed. "I, uh, did that the other night," he answered.

Shaking his head, Wolverine mumbled something about kids as he left the room, slamming the door behind him. Once he was gone, Kurt jumped down from the ceiling and went over to examine the window. There was a small, round hole in the glass. It wasn't a big hole, but it wasn't there the last time he had looked. At least, he didn't think it was.

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Bayville High's library wasn't huge, but it certainly had its fair share of resources. Normally, Kurt would have looked online for answers, but something told him to look in the books first. He grabbed a handful off of the shelf and carried them to an empty table.

The first five only stated facts, which only vaguely interested Kurt. He didn't care so much about what caused sleepwalker or the statistics. He just wanted to know how to stop it. He placed those books aside when he noticed the final book he had pulled from the shelf. The worn cover depicted a shadowy monster standing over a small child lying in the bed. Perhaps this book held his answers, but when he opened the book he found the pages were blank. He flipped through the book, but couldn't find a single word. Just as he started to throw the book in frustration, he felt a hand upon his shoulder. 

"You know more than you think," a familiar voice whispered.

Kurt jerked awake and found himself standing in a dark room. The dreams were getting worse now, but he didn't know what to do. He started to step forward, but bumped against something. His eyes hadn't adjusted to the light, but he used his hands to touch the object and realized it was his own bed. At least he hadn't teleported far that time. He half-expected to be in the library of the mansion.

Shaking his head as if trying to fully dispel the dream, he started to climb into bed. Strange, his bed felt softer than usual and there seemed to be something underneath the covers. He pushed down on the object to try to find out what it was.

"Ow!" a voice cried. Before Kurt had time to register what was going on, a light from the others side of the room was turned on. He looked over to see a very surprised Rogue looking at him. Which meant…

"KURT!" Kitty screamed, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"I..I..I" Kurt stammered, "I, uh, it's not…"

"YOU PERVERT!" She grabbed her pillow and swung it, hitting him square in the face. 

"Let me explain," he began, backing away, but she wasn't ready to listen. She was still swinging her pillow around like a weapon and yelling. Retreating, he teleported back to his own room and hoped that he would be waking up soon.

No such luck. Within minutes, both Jean and Scott knocked on his door. As they walked in, he laughed nervously. "I guess I've got some explaining to do," he said.

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I'm so sorry this part took so long to post. My computer has been down for the last few weeks so I couldn't really work on this. Thanks for reading my story.


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